Summer Support and Bridge Programs
Summer support and bridge programs are an effective way to reduce summer melt, an issue that affects many high school students transitioning to college. These programs help students make informed decisions, complete applications and paperwork, and navigate the financial aid process. They also provide mentorship, tutoring, and other support services to ensure students stay on track and succeed academically. We've shared a few resources to help beat the summer melt.
Foundational Tools & Resources
Resources for Practitioners
Check out this guide for counselors on how to send effective nudges (text messages) to students.
Learn more about how others investigated and responded to to summer melt developed by Harvard Strategic Data Project.
Learn more about how to reduce the effect of summer melt through these case studies developed by NCAN.
Resources for Students and Families
Learn more about TRiO's transition programs that aim to motivate and support students from middle school to post-baccalaureate programs.
Additional Resources
Resources for Practitioners:
Key Takeaways from "Reducing Summer Melt in the Age of COVID" (Florida College Access Network): Proposes some research on strategies to reduce summer melt by NCAN, in addition to providing some insights on how to utilize data to analyze summer melt.
Student Success Convenings: Convening of front-line student success practitioners to discuss and share best practices for identifying students with non-academic needs/barriers and how to best support them.
What the Research Says About Summer Melt (2018): Offers a variety of case studies on strategies to address Summer Melt.
Exemplars:
Los Angeles Unified School District Preventing Summer Melt Toolkit: An example of strategies to prevent summer melt for counselors in LAUSD.